Nuke Pop: Popular Culture Images of Nuclear War • Credits

The Japanese

japan
Comic cover with illustration of person with text, I saw it, and a nuclear explosion. The atomic bombing of Hiroshima. A survivor's true story by Kaiji Nakazawa.
One of the most important tasks undertaken by writers and artists is the depiction of the actual effects of the only nuclear war the world has so far experienced: the ending of World War II. Note that the conventional depiction of the premier icon of nuclear war-the mushroom cloud-is almost always at a distance. The familiar shape is awesome, but not immediately threatening.
It takes a cartoonist from Hiroshima, Keiji Nakazawa, to take us beneath the shadow of the bomb and see directly what it did to the human beings it struck.
Comic with 4 panels - first panel has people hiding their eyes and falling with text, Flash - 43 seconds later... The atomic bomb named "thin boy" exploded with a white-hot light - it was as if a million flash bulbs had gone off at once. Other three panels show people grimacing and an explosion with text, Whoosh.
Barefoot Gen is the story of one family, in Hiroshima.
Illustration of people suffering with destruction and fire all around and text, Roar, Crash, Help!, Run!, AARGH!
Whereas most depictions of nuclear war transport us to the far future or view the events from a distance, this comic plunges us into the almost unbearable suffering caused by war. It is remarkable that Nakazawa does not simply blame the Americans, but also criticizes the Japanese for their blind militaristic chauvinism during World War II.
Cover illustration with black semi-circle over destroyed city and text, Akira by Catsuhiro Otomo. Chapter 1: The Highway.
Compare Nakazawa’s view of the bomb from beneath the cloud to that of another, more skillful, Japanese comic book artist, Katsuhiro Otomo, whose epic-length post-World War III work, Akira, was turned into a feature film. He chooses an aerial view-the bomb as seen from the perspective of the attacker, similar to the Midnight Oil album cover we just saw, but more striking.
Illustrations of mushroom clouds looking down from outer space.
While the familiar mushroom cloud has lost much of its impact, this ominous black dome and the spreading circles of dust driven by the shockwave remind us forcefully of the terrible power of the bomb. This kind of creative re-imagining of nuclear imagery is rare.
I was fascinated to learn from a student who had seen Akira in Tokyo that the incoming missiles were clearly labelled as American in origin. By the time the film reached the U.S. this inflammatory shot had been deleted.

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